Drummers invite Helen Mirren to open gay festival – and shout at them again

The organisers of a gay music festival whose noisy drummers received a royal
ticking off from Dame Helen Mirren for disrupting her performance as the
Queen have invited her back to shout at them again.

Dame Helen Mirren offered an olive branch to a troupe of noisy drummers who disrupted her performance as the Queen – by taking it upon herself to promote their music festival for them.

Dame Helen stormed out of the Gielgud theatre in London on Saturday dressed as the Queen to remonstrate with a troupe of samba-style musicians who had stopped outside the stage door while she was performing in The Audience, a play about the Queen.

Today she offered them an olive branch, by appearing in a t-shirt with a hand-written message advertising the festival - but with a cheeky message on the back urging them to take their drumming elsewhere.

It shows a drum with two drumsticks, drawn in black marker pen, above the message: “Yes please! Just not outside a theatre!”

As footage of her confrontation with the troupe was circulated on the internet, Dame Helen told The Telegraph that she would like to invite them to watch the play and describing their drumming as wonderful.

But organisers of the As One In The Park event went one step further - inviting Dame Helen to officially open the festival, which begins on May 26 alongside the drummers.

“We want her to appear with the Samba band and come on and say ‘Shut the ---- up’.” One of the organisers explained.

In return they would make a donation to a charity of her choice.

Dame Helen Mirren with her customised T-shirt to promote "As One In The Park" (Rex Features)

A spokesman for the festival, when told about the gesture, laughed and said: “Bless her.”

It shows her, dressed in a regal blue outfit, gesticulating furiously and pointing to the thin walls of the theatre to show how close they were to the stage.

She explained to The Telegraph that it was the sight of a sea of mobile phones filming her which triggered her rather hasty exit indoors.

"I felt terrible, they are fellow performers,” she said.

"Because I was surrounded by cameras there wasn't enough time to sit down and be sensible about it.

“I just had to make my feelings felt and rush off back into the theatre - I also had to get on with the play.”

She said that the drumming had become so loud by the end of the first half that it had become virtually impossible to continue the scene she was performing with Paul Ritter, who plays John Major.

“I was going to make a gag to Paul saying something like 'Oh no they are coming to chop my head off' - it sounded like the revolution was happening outside the very door.

“I thought we can't carry like this, they have to stop.

“I was so upset from struggling through the scene with Paul that I literally walked straight off stage, straight up the stairs and straight out the stage door and banged my through the crowd who were watching and said 'stop, you've got to stop right now' only I might have used stronger language than that.

“They were very sweet and stopped the minute they knew I wasn't just a batty old woman haranguing them on the streets of Soho on a Saturday night, because there are plenty of those around.

“I would love them to come and see the play and understand why I was so upset.